With sadness, we announce the passing of Lee Cornell Chamberlain on June 6, 2024, son of the late I. Cornell and Sylvia J. Chamberlain of Glendale, UT. He is survived by his wife, Mary Joan (Coombs) Chamberlain, four brothers, one sister, and a foster sister, his four children (Kenneth C. Chamberlain (Cheryl), Laurel Lee Martinelli (Ed), David Coombs Chamberlain (Vicki), and Joanna Chamberlain Thomsen (Scott), twelve grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Preceding Lee in returning to his Heavenly Father, were two sisters (Juanita (Lynn) Esplin and Corinne (Maurice) Pugh) and a grandson – “Buddie” Edward Allan Martinelli III. Lee was born on Oct. 4, 1935. Lee was the oldest of eight siblings. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to England, from 1955 to 1957, while there he was called as a Branch President. He married Mary Jo Coombs on June 29, 1960, in the Salt Lake City Temple. He is a graduate from Utah State University.
After working on the family farm in Lydias Canyon (just north of Glendale) for five years, he joined the BLM and worked in Malta, MT; Socorro, NM; and Moab, UT. While in Malta and Socorro, he was the Branch President and oversaw the raising of building funds to construct the chapels in those two locations. After moving to Moab, he served over seven years as a Bishop and then as the Stake Mission President. When he retired from the BLM, he and Mary Joan moved back to Glendale in 1996.
In 1998, he was elected Mayor of Glendale. In 2000, he and his wife were called to the Melbourne, Australia mission where they served for 22 months. Over the next nine years, he and his wife served four more missions, one in the St. George Temple, one at the Deseret Industries in St. George, helping in with the vocational training classes, then eighteen months in the Baguio, Philippines Mission, and then shortly after returning home, they were called back to the Philippines, to serve in the Manilla Temple.
As his health deteriorated, they sold their home in Lydias Canyon and moved to Washington, UT and lived there for five years. In April of 2024, they moved to an assisted living center in Cedar Hills, UT. Now he is making his final mortal move.
Funeral services will be Saturday, June 15 at 2 pm at the Glendale, UT ward chapel and the burial will be in the Glendale town cemetery. Services were arranged with Mosdell Mortuary.